They are in front of our house too and very entertaining to watch. It appeared they were fishing together and when one fell asleep on the job the other one grabbed him/her by the scruff of the neck and spun them around......then back to work for both.

They are in front of our house too and very entertaining to watch. It appeared they were fishing together and when one fell asleep on the job the other one grabbed him/her by the scruff of the neck and spun them around......then back to work for both.

Hmmm...I believe you may have been witnessing mating activity! Many times it seems the drake is beating up on the hen when it’s something totally different!
Vive la nature!

Easily confused with the Common Merganser; here, the Common Merganser male shows a very crisp appearance, while the females of both species have a "bad hair day" appearance.

Common Mergansers have huge families, with chicks that can get "blended" with other Merganser moms. It doesn't help that Merganser moms lay eggs in the nests of their neighbor Mergansers. The males have long been gone to bachelor quarters—elsewhere.

Sailors and aviators would recognize that Mergansers have "high-aspect-ratio" wings, which helps to account for their 100-MPH speeds—the fastest among ducks, and just edging-out Bald Eagles in top speed. They typically fly low to the water. Like the landings of Loons, photographs of Mergansers in top speed flight are a good "coup" for the photographer.

I watched as a pair of Hooded Mergansers, normally wary, pulled crayfish—one after the other—from the edge of my wooded shoreline. They are the earliest of migrant ducks, being content among narrow openings in Lake Winnipesaukee's ice that allow them a short run to get airborne.